This is a new edition of the University at Albany’s Teaching Assistant Handbook produced by the Institute for Teaching, Learning and Academic Leadership (ITLAL). Many individuals have contributed to the production of this handbook over the years: faculty members who have shared personal experiences and anecdotes and were instrumental in developing the first edition of this handbook; the staff of the Institute for Teaching, Learning & Academic Leadership; and a cadre of very committed and experienced graduate students, who dedicated their time to the revision of past handbooks, the planning and execution of the graduate student orientation for incoming graduate students each year, and the ongoing workshops for graduate teaching assistants. We are grateful to all of you for your hard work. In increasing numbers, colleges and universities are developing in-house publications such as this one to provide information on various pedagogical issues to new teaching assistants and faculty. Much of the information in such guides is relatively generic and appropriate to any number of institutions; thus, it finds its way into many of the extant teaching books, and ours is no exception. We acknowledge the work of many others who have traveled this path before us, and we have found valuable information in many of the “TA booklets” we have perused. Specific referents for our approach include the following:

TA Handbook, The Graduate School, Northwestern University, 1994.

Teaching at The Ohio State University: A Handbook, Center for Teaching Excellence, Ohio State University, 1990.

Teaching Assistance: A Handbook of Teaching Ideas, Teaching Assistant Development Program, University of California, San Diego.